Will BuzzFeed Turn Videocentric To Follow Others

Two recent meetings took on greater import, after BuzzFeed told employees two weeks ago that it was formally dividing its news and entertainment divisions. The day the reorganization was announced, Ben Smith, the editor in chief, met with the news staff to reassure them that the company was committed to its news operations. And last Wednesday, Mr. Peretti held a question-and-answer session and vowed that the company was not planning to sell its news division.

Under the new structure, Mr. Smith, who is based in New York, will lead BuzzFeed News, and Mr. Frank, who is based in Los Angeles, will oversee a new division called BuzzFeed Entertainment Group. It no longer made sense, Mr. Peretti said in a memo to employees, for BuzzFeed to have “a single ‘video department.

Already, video represents more than 50 percent of BuzzFeed’s total revenue, compared with 15 percent at the end of 2014. In the next two years, BuzzFeed expects that video will generate up to 75 percent of its advertising revenue, according to a person briefed on the company’s operations.

For years, BuzzFeed has been viewed as a digital success story. Its viral content has been the envy of the media industry and its business model, built on so-called native advertising rather than display ads, enticed brands that wanted to reach younger demographics.

BuzzFeed’s decision to separate its news and entertainment divisions follows similar moves by media companies like News Corporation and Tribune Company, raising the question of whether BuzzFeed would de-emphasize or even spin off its news operation.

Video Ads are bringing in so much money I would not blame them for jumping in this bang wagon at least for a while. This is also a way a new start up can get in the running with the big dogs very quickly.

Video Ads are bringing in so much money I would not blame them for jumping in this bang wagon at least for a while. This is also a way a new start up can get in the running with the big dogs very quickly.

Yes you must move on with the times. If they don't in a few years the may just be out of business.

Truth has never been an essential ingredient of viral content on the Internet. But in the stepped-up competition for readers, digital news sites are increasingly blurring the line between fact and fiction, and saying that it is all part of doing business in the rough-and-tumble world of online journalism.